Play Destruction Derby in Your Browser

About Destruction Derby

Destruction Derby is a vehicular combat racing game from 1995, developed by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis. It is based on the sport of demolition derby: you score points by racing and by wrecking the other cars. The PlayStation version came out in Europe on October 20, 1995, and the MS-DOS version reached North America on October 31, 1995, with Europe following in November. A Windows release came in April 1996, and Perfect Entertainment ported the game to the Sega Saturn, released in Europe on August 15, 1996. Martin Edmondson designed and directed it, Tony Parks produced it and Tim Swan wrote the music. The original has both single-player and multiplayer modes.

The developers gave the game simulated physics so that the results of a collision would be easier to predict, and they kept the tracks small to increase the number of wrecks. Critics enjoyed it and praised its graphics and car damage system, though the Saturn release received mixed reviews. It started the Destruction Derby series, which continued with Destruction Derby 2 in 1996.

How it runs in your browser

Play opens dos.zone in a new tab, on the page for this game. DOS.Zone runs the MS-DOS release inside js-dos, its open-source take on DOSBox for the browser, which emulates a PC of the period. The files load from the site, so you skip the install, don’t need a copy of your own and don’t have to sign up for anything. DOS.Zone shows no ads.

The listing files the game under racing for the IBM PC and has a rating of 5 from 16 player reviews. Its short description is about smashing and wrecking rivals while avoiding damage yourself. It doesn’t say whether the original’s multiplayer modes work in the browser or how results are kept, so treat it as a single-player game unless the page tells you otherwise.

Controls and devices

Destruction Derby was built for keyboard play on the PC. Click inside the game window once it has loaded so the emulator picks up your keys. DOS.Zone doesn’t list the controls, so look for the driving keys in the game’s own menus before your first race.

DOS.Zone offers virtual on-screen controls on phones. A racing game made for a keyboard is still a better fit for a desktop or laptop, and we haven’t tested it on a phone or a Chromebook.

Who it’s for

It suits anyone who played Destruction Derby in the 1990s and wants a round of crashes without setting up an emulator, and anyone who likes racing games where hitting other cars is the aim rather than a mistake. The small tracks keep the wrecks coming, and the physics were designed so that crashes behave in ways you can learn to predict. For another vehicular combat game from the same years, Carmageddon from 1997 is on DOS.Zone, and The Need for Speed is there if you’d rather race cleanly.